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“This would be the first cup of the return of an old favourite recently returned to my collection backlog.
And actually, slightly unfair to the tea because it’s a really good tea, today it’s just a...”
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“I just got this in the mail and immediately brewed a cup. I love it. I don’t know what to say about it other than yum. I am not a white tea aficionado and I am not sure what black currents taste...”
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“Decided to try this in my wee oolong pot. 1 teaspoon to 4 oz of water. One thing about white teas that I don’t like is that you have to use so much! This little pot preserves the illusion of only...”
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From 52teas

It’s white tea week at 52teas. I accidentally ordered a bit too much white tea, so here we are with a couple of extra blends this week.

Sometimes I think white tea is not as much fun as the others. It’s such a delicate and subtle flavor to begin with that it doesn’t lend itself to things like chocolate peanut butter cup. What DOES pair well with it are nice sweet fruits, like black currant.

Chelsea, my faithful sidekick insists that our black currant papaya green tea is great for taking baths in. She says it makes her smell good and it leaves her skin feeling softer. Clearly, I’m not one to take a bath in our teas, but I have to admit that it’s pretty sexy to think of Chelsea taking a bath in them. (Sorry Sheri).

Anyway, (and before I get myself in too much trouble) whether you drink it or bathe in it, I think you are going to find this tea amazing. We actually doubled up on the amount of real black currants in this blend and it is delicious.

At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.

Proposals always make me think of the sage advice my mom gave me when we broke the news to her (and no, I’m not making this up): “Just remember, you’ll be washing this man’s dirty underwear for the rest of your life.”

Well, he said, “will you marry me?” and whipped out this ring: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hUyvZSFX3Kt1Pi3cbvN89Tt0rtk7VScRcTAqR2hWR8Q?feat=directlink
I said, “yes.”
And then after a little while he said, “I can’t believe you said yes so quickly! Are you sure you don’t want to think it over?”
So I offered to take it back and think about it if he would like, but he said that was against the rules.
All in all very straightforward without a lot of romantic nonsense and what not involved which is how I prefer it, as all that stuff with hearts and roses and whatnot mostly tend to make me a little uncomfortable.

And also, FYI, that’s just a place holder! If you consequently answer ‘a pony’ to all questions about whether you need something from the supermarket, apparently you get one of those. :p
The real ring will follow. We are going to go look at some next week and then I get to choose my own.

The pony ring is too cute. Did you ever watch Gilmore Girls? It reminds me of that. One guy proposes to his girlfriend with an Elk’s Lodge ring from the pawn shop and after he gets approval from her mother and asks her again the mother says “Here is your grandmother’s ring. That one you put in drawer so it doesn’t scare the children”.

I just got this in the mail and immediately brewed a cup. I love it. I don’t know what to say about it other than yum. I am not a white tea aficionado and I am not sure what black currents taste like by themselves so it is difficult for me to be a good judge of which flavors are dominant, etc. But I can say that I really really like it.

When I open the bag and smell it, it smells so sweet, like candy. Then when it is brewed up the white tea and the black currents are both delicate and seem well balanced. I added a little agave nectar to it because, well, that’s what I do. That really made it for me. I was sad to hit the bottom of the cup.

Brewed 2 1/2 tsp to about 10 oz for 2 1/2 minutes at 187 F. That is a higher temp than recommended but I don’t have a tea kettle at the moment (getting water from the Keurig) and my kitchen thermometer batteries are out. It didn’t seem to hurt it.

If you can find an unflavored version, I would give it a try, you’ll probably enjoy it quite a bit. Whites of this kind lend themselves to a sort of sweetness and wouldn’t be harmed by a drop of agave.

The flavoring is pretty delicate. They did a nice job with it. I’ve had an unflavored white tea before and found it to be a little bland. I don’t remember what kind of white it was (probably was something from Teavana).

Dumb it may be, but an awful lot of bad tea gets sold in this country nevertheless. ;-)

However, my point was that with white tea, it isn’t a question of good versus bad, but rather a question of mediocre versus good versus very good versus exceptional. I have found that Teavana tries to pass off mediocre/good tea as very good/exceptional simply by charging twice what the tea is worth. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that a white tea that Kristin tried from that shop was bland – I’ve never been impressed with anything I’ve had from them.

What I’m saying is, if you want to drink unflavored white tea and have it impress you, you probably need to drop some serious coin on some serious tea. White tea is too fragile to survive the trip to your cup with all the nuances intact except under the best of care; which most tea doesn’t get.

Re. bad tea. That is why I have stopped buying almost any tea that I cannot buy a sample of first (this one was an exception because 52 teas are so unique). I got tired of throwing away large tins of tea.

Liking a tea is a matter of personal taste and preference, it has nothing to do with objective quality. Objective quality is expensive. Unfortunately, sometimes stuff that isn’t very good is also expensive. So yes, we should not mistake a high price tag for quality, but the reality is, something that is of objective quality is going to be expensive. Based on what Kristin has said, my suspicion is that she isn’t going to enjoy lesser whites.

Decided to try this in my wee oolong pot. 1 teaspoon to 4 oz of water. One thing about white teas that I don’t like is that you have to use so much! This little pot preserves the illusion of only using a teaspoon a pot, and you get plenty of tea from the multiple infusions (again, why did I wait so long to try this little wonder pot??!!)! There are a few tea leaves in my poured cup, but nothing terrible! Perhaps I can read my tea leaves after I’m done :)

My kettle only goes as low as 175, so I decided to brew at a higher temp than what is recommended on the package. The tea tastes just as spectacular thankfully! I might even prefer it a notch more – it’s more tea-y (and not bitter, which was my fear). I think I’ll continue to brew this at 175.

The black currant flavor and the mellow, delicious white tea is so enjoyable in the afternoon. Each successive steep is milder in both fruit and tea flavor, but very good. I made 5 steeps altogether, increasing a minute each steep.

Yay! This made my afternoon!

If you are curious about my tea leaves, I saw a:

BIRD – good news, psychic powers, movement, motion, good luck, a lucky sign; good news if flying, a fortunate journey

LOL! I almost choked on my bagel when I read your comment Frank XD
But Frank — think of the marketing possibilities! You could put a tiny prize in each tea like Cracker Jacks, most kids cereals, or Wade of England ;)

Cold-brewed some of this up today as well; it was just fine to have in place of plain, ice-cold water, and I think that’s how I’ll finish this one, but it’s definitely not a favourite. I just don’t get the berry flavour I’m looking for here, and the white tea comes off a bit play-doughy or chemically.

Preparation

Second steeping: Just as good as the first! Added a minute to the steeping time and nom nom nom. I’d say that the white tea retreated somewhat with the second steeping, which is not what I would have expected, but there you go.

I just watched a really interesting documentary called Objectified. If you have Netflix Instant, it’s only available for another week. It’s about how design has come along and now I am looking at everything wondering why it looks the way it does. Like, I never even considered before…digital cameras don’t use film, so why do we keep them the same rectangular shape as 35mm cameras? I suppose the back display looks all proper then, but you could still place a rectangular screen on an object of a different shape…interesting stuff.

I brewed this earlier and left it in the fridge while my ice maker worked out whatever its little problem was, and I must say this could be in one of my future 52teas orders. I think I have only had currants once, and it was on a pastry that was mostly made up of green tea mousse. So, I really love the flavor of tea and currants, and I think they work better with white than green teas. I have another white tea with currant flavoring but I far prefer this.

It’s sweet enough, but I suppose adding a little sweetener could really crank up the berry flavor. I like it just like it is. It’s a nice mix of white tea and black currant flavor, and it tastes just like those real berries did on the mousse…unlike my other tea.

I’ve waited too long after first trying this tea to write a thorough and good tealog of my initial impressions. So I shall save that for the next time I have this tea and just briefly record my initial impressions.

The dry leaves were large fuzzy whites with a few twigs and lots of black current berries. I don’t know what black currents smell like but the smell was sweet, slightly tart, berry, and just a bit artificial but in a yummy way. It oddly nostalgically reminded me of purple smelly markers from when I was a kid, you know the ones that smelled like foods. I don’t remember much about the wet leaves except that they didn’t have as much scent as I would have expected.

My first steep was very light in color and light in flavor as well but good. I increased the water temperature by 5° for the remaining steeps and that seems to have done the trick. The remaining steeps were darker in color and I could taste both the white tea and the smooth yummy berry flavor. The forth steep was still quite good and I would have gone on steeping if I’d continued to drink more tea at that time.

Next time all the steeps will be at 160° F and I will steep the first steep for the full two minutes. In the future, I might be interested in trying a slightly higher water temperature depending on how that comes out. I might also be interested in trying increasing each steep time by 30 seconds instead of one minute at some point.

Brewed up a large glass of this iced today (quick brew method over ice). I’m impressed at how naturally sweet this tea is, no need to add anything to it. The currant flavor came out strong to play in this iced tea. I’m loving it! I think I’ll need another pouch to get through summer. I hope they will reblend this one if their is enough demand, must keep in stock!

Preparation

I SHOULD tell you, “oh no, this one is going to sell out and be gone forever, order it now while you can,” but I think if this sells out, I will have to reblend it just so I can keep some in my OWN cupboard. :) This is (I may have mentioned elsewhere) my new favorite. I could drink this all day. It’s really a shame it has not been as big a seller as some of our other blends. Some folks are really missing out.